Brigadier General George Miller Sternberg, MD (June 8, 1838 – November 3, 1915) was a U.S. Army physician who is considered to have been the first bacteriologist in the United States. Brigadier General is the lowest ranking General Officer in some countries usually sitting between the ranks of Colonel and Major General. Events 68 - The Roman Senate accepts emperor Galba. 536 - St Silverius becomes Pope (probable Year 1838 ( MDCCCXXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Events 644 - Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second Muslim Caliph, is killed by a Persian slave in Medina. Year 1915 ( MCMXV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year The United States Army is a military organization whose primary mission is to "provide necessary forces and capabilities. Microbiology (from Greek grc μῑκρος mīkros, "small" grc βίος bios, " Life " and grc -λογία He was the 18th U.S. Army Surgeon General from 1893 to 1902. This article is about the senior physician in the US Army For the head of the U Pioneering German bacteriologist Robert Koch honored him with the sobriquet, “Father of American Bacteriology”. Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch ( December 11 1843 – May 27 1910) was a German Physician. A sobriquet is a Nickname or a fancy name usually a familiar name given by others as distinct from a Pseudonym assumed as a disguise but a nickname which is familiar
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Biography
Youth and education
George Sternberg was born at Hartwick Seminary, Otsego County, New York, where he spent most of his childhood. Otsego County is a County located in the US state of New York. His father, Levi Sternberg, a Lutheran clergyman who later became principal of Hartwick Seminary, was descended from a German family from the Palatinate, which had settled in the Schoharie Valley in the early years of the 18th century. Hartwick College is a non-denominational private, four-year Liberal arts and sciences College located in Oneonta, New York, in the The Palatinate (Pfalz Pfälzer dialect Palz) historically also Rhenish Palatinate (palatinatum Renensis Rheinpfalz is a region in south-western Germany Schoharie Creek in New York, USA flows from the foot of Indian Head in the Catskill Mountains to the Mohawk River. His mother, Margaret Levering (Miller) Sternberg, was the daughter of George B. Miller, also a Lutheran clergyman and professor of theology at the seminary, which was a Lutheran school. Theology is the study of a god or the gods from a religious perspective He was the eldest child of a large family and he was given adult responsibilities from an early age. He interrupted his studies at the seminary with a year of work in a bookstore in Cooperstown and three years of teaching in nearby rural schools. During his last year at Hartwick he was an instructor in mathematics, chemistry, and natural philosophy. Mathematics is the body of Knowledge and Academic discipline that studies such concepts as Quantity, Structure, Space and Chemistry (from Egyptian kēme (chem meaning "earth") is the Science concerned with the composition structure and properties For the current in the 19th century German idealism see Naturphilosophie Natural philosophy or the philosophy of nature (from He was at the same time pursuing the study of medicine with Dr. Medicine is the art and science of healing It encompasses a range of Health care practices evolved to maintain and restore Human Health by the Horace Lathrop of Cooperstown. For his formal medical training he went first to Buffalo, and later to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York (M.D. degree, 1860). Buffalo (ˈbʌfəloʊ is the second largest city in New York State. Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, abbreviated P&S, is a graduate school of Columbia University located on the health sciences campus in the Doctor of Medicine ( MD or MD, from the Latin Medicinæ Doctor meaning "Teacher of Medicine" is a doctoral After graduation he settled in Elizabeth, New Jersey to practice, remaining there until the outbreak of the Civil War. Elizabeth is a city in Union County, New Jersey, in the United States.
Early career
Junior Army surgeon
On May 28, 1861, he was appointed an Assistant Surgeon in the U. The Medical Corps of the US Army (MC is a staff corps (non-combat specialty branch of the U S. Army, and on July 21 of the same year was captured at the Battle of Bull Run, while serving with General George Sykes' division. George Sykes ( October 9, 1822 &ndash February 8, 1880) was a career United States Army officer and a Union General He managed to escape and soon joined his command in the defense of Washington. Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D He later participated in the Peninsular campaign and saw service in the battles of Gaines' Mill and Malvern Hill. The Peninsula Campaign (also known as the Peninsular Campaign) of the American Civil War was a major Union operation launched in southeastern The Battle of Gaines' Mill, also known as the First Battle of Cold Harbor or the Battle of Chickahominy River, took place on June 27, 1862 The Battle of Malvern Hill, also known as the Battle of Poindexter's Farm, took place on July 1, 1862, in Henrico County Virginia, was During this campaign he contracted typhoid fever while at Harrison's Landing and was sent north on a transport. Typhoid fever, also known as enteric fever, bilious fever, Yellow Jack or commonly just typhoid, is an illness caused by the Bacterium Berkeley Plantation, one of the first great estates in America comprises about 1000 acres (4 During the remainder of the war he performed hospital duty, mostly at Portsmouth Grove, Rhode Island, and at Cleveland, Ohio. Cleveland is a City in the US state of Ohio and the County seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state On March 13, 1865, he was given the brevets of captain and major for faithful and meritorious service. Major is a Military rank the use of which varies according to country
The years following the war followed the pattern of frequent moves typical of junior medical officers of the day. He married Louisa Russell, daughter of Robert Russell of Cooperstown, on October 19, 1865 and took his bride to Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, from where he was soon transferred to Fort Harker, near Ellsworth in Kansas. The Jefferson Barracks Military Post, located on the Mississippi River at Lemay Missouri, which is just south of St Fort Harker, located in Kanopolis Kansas, was an active military installation of the United States Army from November 17, 1866 to Ellsworth is a city in Ellsworth County, Kansas, United States. Kansas ( is a Midwestern state in the central region of the United States of America, an area often referred to as the American " Louisa did not accompany him to the latter post, but joined him in 1867 just prior to an outbreak of cholera. Cholera, sometimes known as Asiatic cholera or epidemic cholera, is an infectious Gastroenteritis caused by the Bacterium She was one of the first civilians to develop the disease which killed her within a few hours on July 15 and soon claimed a toll of about 75 people at the fort.
Paleontology
Sternberg was promoted to captain on May 28, 1866 and was soon sent to Fort Riley, Kansas (December 1867). Fort Riley is a United States Army installation located in Northeast Kansas, on the Kansas River, between Junction City With troops from this post he took part (1868-69) in several expeditions against hostile Cheyenne Indians along the upper Arkansas River in Indian Territory and in western Kansas. Cheyenne are a Native American nation of the Great Plains. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taa'e (more commonly The Arkansas River is a major Tributary of the Mississippi River. Besides his military duties, Sternberg was also interested in fossils and began collecting leaf imprints from the nearby Dakota Sandstone Formation. The Dakota Sandstone (also Cockrum Sandstone, Dakota Formation) is a general term for an ill-defined early Cretaceous Formation of the Rocky Some of his specimens went back East where they were studied by the famous paleobotanist, Leo Lesquereux.
Sternberg also collected vertebrate fossils, including shark teeth, fish remains and mosasaur bones, from the Smoky Hill Chalk and Pierre Shale formations in western Kansas, and sent the specimens back to Washington, D. C. , where they were eventually curated in the United States National Museum (Smithsonian Institution). The Smithsonian Institution (smɪθsoʊnɪən is an educational and research institute and associated Museum complex administered and funded by the Government of The Smithsonian Institution (smɪθsoʊnɪən is an educational and research institute and associated Museum complex administered and funded by the Government of There they were studied and later described in publications by Joseph Leidy. Joseph Leidy ( September 9 1823 &ndash 30 April 1891) was an American Paleontologist. The type specimen of the giant Late Cretaceous fish, Xiphactinus audax, was collected by Dr. Late Cretaceous (100mya - 65mya refers to the second half of the Cretaceous Period, named after the famous white Chalk cliffs of southern England Xiphactinus audax Leidy (from Latin and Greek for "audacious Sword -ray" was a large 4 Sternberg. His work was also credited by Edward D. Cope and Samuel W. Williston. Samuel Wendell Williston ( July 10, 1852 &ndash August 30, 1918) was an American Educator and Paleontologist who was the Sternberg was also responsible for getting his younger brother, Charles H. Sternberg, started in paleontology. Charles Hazelius Sternberg ( June 15 1850 &ndash July 20 1943) was an American Fossil collector and amateur paleontologist Palaeontology redirects here For the Scientific journal, see Palaeontology (journal. Charles would later credit his older brother for getting many other paleontologists of the day interested in the fossil resources of Kansas.
Sternberg served at Fort Riley until July 1870, when be was ordered to Governors Island, New York. This article is about Governors Island in New York For other uses see Governors Island (disambiguation Governors Island is a 172- Acre (69 ha island In the meantime, he had remarried on September 1, 1869, at Indianapolis, Indiana, to Martha L. Pattison, a daughter of Thomas T. N. Pattison of that city.
Later career
Yellow fever
Two years at Governors Island and three (1872-75) at Fort Barrancas, Florida, afforded Sternberg frequent contacts with yellow fever patients and at the latter post he contracted the disease himself. Fort Barrancas (1839 or Fort San Carlos de Barrancas (from 1787 is the name of a historic United States military fort in the Warrington area of Yellow fever (also called yellow jack, black vomit or sometimes American Plague) is an acute viral disease He had earlier noted the efficiency of moving inhabitants out of an infested environment and successfully applied that method to the Barrancas garrison. At about this time Sternberg published two articles in the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal ("An Inquiry into the Modus Operandi of the Yellow Fever Poison," July 1875, and "A Study of the Natural History of Yellow Fever," March 1877) which gained him status as an authority on yellow fever. While convalescing from his bout with the disease in 1877 be was ordered to Fort Walla Walla, Washington, and later that year he participated in a campaign against the Nez Perce Indians. Fort Walla Walla is a Fort located in Walla Walla Washington. The Nez Perce (ˌnɛzˈpɝs are a Tribe of Native Americans who live in the Pacific Northwest region ( Columbia River Plateau) of the United The spent his spare hours in study and experimentation which laid a foundation for his later work. In 1870 he perfected an anemometer and patented an automatic heat regulator which later saw wide use. An anemometer is a device for measuring wind speed and is one instrument used in a Weather station.
On December 1, 1875, Sternberg was promoted major and in April 1879 be was ordered to Washington, D. C. , and detailed with the Havana Yellow Fever Commission His medical colleagues on the Commission were Doctors Stanfard Chaille of New Orleans and Juan Guiteras of Havana. New Orleans (nʲuːˈɔrliənz nʲuːˈɔrlənz French: La Nouvelle-Orléans) is a major United States port city and the largest city in Louisiana Havana ( IPA: aˈβana officially Ciudad de La Habana, is the Capital city, major port and leading Sternberg was assigned to work on the problems relating to the nature and natural history of the disease and especially to its etiology. Etiology (alternatively aetiology, aitiology) is the study of causation. This involved the microscopical examination of blood and tissues in which he was one of the first to employ the newly discovered process of photomicrography. Photography (fә'tɒgrәfi or fә'tɑːgrәfi (from Greek φωτο and γραφία is the process and Art of recording pictures by means of capturing He developed high efficiency in its use. In the course of this work, he spent three months in Havana closely associated with Dr. Carlos Finlay, the main proponent of the theory of mosquito transmission of yellow fever. Carlos Juan Finlay (born Juan Carlos Finlay y Barrés on December 3 1833, Puerto Principe Cuba &ndash August 20 1915
Bacteriology milestones
In 1880, the Commission concluded that the solution of yellow fever causality must await further progress in the new science of bacteriology. Microbiology (from Greek grc μῑκρος mīkros, "small" grc βίος bios, " Life " and grc -λογία Sternberg was soon sent to New Orleans to investigate the conflicting discoveries of Plasmodium malariae by Alphonse Laveran, and of Bacillus malariae by Arnold Karl Klebs and Carrado Tomassi-Caudeli. Plasmodium malariae is a parasitic Protozoa that causes Malaria in humans and animals Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran ( June 18, 1845 &ndash May 18, 1922) was a French Physician. His report (1881) declared that the Bacillus malariae had no part in the causation of malaria. The same year — simultaneously with Louis Pasteur — he announced the discovery of the pneumococcus, eventually recognized as the pathogenic agent of lobar pneumonia. Louis Pasteur (27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895 a French Chemist and Microbiologist, is best known for remarkable breakthroughs in the causes and Streptococcus pneumoniae, or pneumococcus, is a Gram-positive, alpha-hemolytic diplococcus aerotolerant anaerobe and a member of the Genus Pneumonia is an inflammatory illness of the Lung. Frequently it is described as lung Parenchyma / alveolar inflammation and abnormal He was the first in the United States to demonstrate the Plasmodium organism as cause of malaria (1885) and the to confirm the causitive roles of the bacilli of tuberculosis and typhoid fever (1886). A plasmodium is also the macroscopic form of the Protist known as a Slime mould. He was the first scientist to produce photomicrographs of the tubercule bacillus. A micrograph, microphotograph or photomicrograph is a Photograph or similar image taken through a Microscope or similar device to show Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the Bacterium that causes most cases of Tuberculosis. He was also the earliest American pioneer in the related field of disinfection in which he began with experiments (1878) with putrefactive bacteria. Putrefaction is the decomposition of animal Proteins especially by anaerobic microorganisms, described as Putrefying bacteria. This work was continued in Washington and in the laboratories of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, under the auspices of the American Public Health Association. Johns Hopkins University|Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine|Greenspring StationThe Johns Hopkins Hospital is a Teaching hospital in Baltimore Maryland The American Public Health Association (APHA is Washington DC For his essay "Disinfection and Individual Prophylaxis against Infectious Diseases" (1886), later translated into several languages, he was awarded the Lomb Prize. He oversaw creation the US Army enlisted hospital corps (“medics”) in 1887.
During the Hamburg cholera epidemic of 1892 he was detailed for duty with the New York quarantine station as a consultant on disinfection as applied to ships, their personnel, and cargo. Hamburg (English, German: ˈhambʊɐk local pronunciation Low German / Low Saxon: Hamborg) is the second-largest city in Germany Although some cases of the disease reached United States shores, none developed within the country.
Surgeon General
Sternberg was promoted to lieutenant colonel on January 2, 1891. In 1892 he published his Manual of Bacteriology, the first exhaustive treatise on the subject produced in the United States. With the retirement of Surgeon General Sutherland (May 1893), Sternberg, along with many others, submitted his claims for consideration for the vacancy. Although hardly the seniormost officer in the Medical Corps, he was among the top dozen and was without question the most eminent professional scientist in the service. The Army Medical Department of the US Army, known as the AMEDD, comprises the six medical Special Branches of the Army He received the appointment of Surgeon General by President Grover Cleveland on May 30, 1893, with promotion to the grade of brigadier general. Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18 1837 June 24 1908 was both the twenty-second and twenty-fourth President of the United States.
Sternberg's nine year tenure (1893-1902) as Surgeon General coincided with immense professional progress in the field of bacteriology as well as the occurrence of the Spanish-American War. He was responsible for the 1893 establishment of the Army Medical School (precursor of today's Walter Reed Army Institute of Research), the organization of a contract dental service, the creation of the tuberculosis hospital at Fort Bayard, New Mexico, and of a special surgical hospital at Washington Barracks. Founded by US Army Brigadier General George Miller Sternberg, MD in 1893 the Army Medical School (AMS was by some reckonings the world's This article is about the US Army medical research institute (not the hospital Fort Bayard National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery near the city of Bayard, in Grant County New Mexico. Fort Lesley J McNair is a United States Army post located on the point of land where the Potomac River and Anacostia River join in Washington The equipment of the medical school included laboratories of chemistry and bacteriology, and a liberal-minded policy was adopted in the supply of laboratory supplies to the larger military hospitals. With the Spanish-American War and its epidemic of typhoid fever, the problem of field hospitalization was confronted with fair success. (He was subjected to much criticism for conditions at these hospitals, but made little reply. ) Sternberg created the Typhoid Fever Board (1898), consisting of Majors Walter Reed, Victor C. Major Walter Reed, MD, ( September 13 1851 - November 23 1902) was a U Vaughan, and Edward O. Shakespeare, which established the facts of contact infection and fly carriage of the disease. In 1900 he organized the Yellow Fever Commission, headed by Reed, which ultimately fixed the transmission of yellow fever upon a particular species of mosquito. (These became celebrated as the “Walter Reed Boards”). On his recommendation the first tropical disease board was also established in Manila (January 1900) where it continued for about the next two years. In 1901, Sternberg oversaw the establishment of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps. The Army Medical Department of the US Army, known as the AMEDD, comprises the six medical Special Branches of the Army
Sternberg was retired on account of age on June 8, 1902, and devoted the later years of his life to social welfare activities in Washington, particularly to the sanitary improvement of dwellings and to the care of tuberculous patients. Sternberg died at his home in Washington, on November 3, 1915.
Legacy
On Sternberg’s monument in Arlington Cemetery is the inscription:
Pioneer American Bacteriologist, distinguished by his studies of the causation and prevention of infectious diseases, by his discovery of the microorganism causing pneumonia, and scientific investigations of yellow fever, which paved the way for the experimental demonstration of the mode of transmission of this pestilence. Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington Virginia, is a military cemetery in the United States, established during the American Civil War Veteran of three wars, breveted for bravery in action in the Civil War and the Nez Perce Wars. Served as Surgeon General of United States Army for period of nine years including the Spanish War. Founder of the Army Medical School. Scientist, author and philanthropist. M. D. , LL. D.
Along with Pasteur and Koch, Sternberg is credited with first bringing the fundamental principles and techniques of the new science of bacteriology within the reach of the average physician.
Awards and accolades
- Honorary degree of LL. D. , University of Michigan (1894)
- Honorary degree of LL. D. , Brown University (1897).
- Honorary member, Epidemiological Society of London, the Royal Academy of Rome, the Academy of Medicine of Rio Janeiro, the American Academy of Medicine, and the French Society of Hygiene.
- Member (and one time president) of the American Medical Association, the American Public Health Association, the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States, the Washington Biological Society, and the Philosophical Society of the District of Columbia.
Miscellany
- Frank Heynick, author of a gigantic tome, Jews and Medicine: An Epic Saga (2003), was dismayed to come across the name of George Sternberg as he was finalizing his manuscript. He had not mentioned Sternberg in his book and the idea of researching yet another life, adding more pages to the 600 page book, and trimming back other parts was disheartening. Further research on Sternberg’s background ensued. As it turned out Sternberg was not, in fact, Jewish — “Thank heavens!” said the ecstatic Heynick.
References
- This article contains information that originally came from US Government publications and websites and is in the public domain.
- "The Trials and Tribulations of George Miller Sternberg (1838-1915)—America's First Bacteriologist," Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, Summer 1993. Vol. 36, Iss. 4; pg. 666.
- Gross, Max, "Doctor Writes ‘Epic Saga’ of Jews in Medicine", The Jewish Daily Forward, Friday, 15 August 2003
- Who's Who in America, 1914-15
- Sternberg, Martha L. (1920), George Miller Sternberg: A Biography, American Medical Association, Chicago. The American Medical Association (AMA founded in 1847 and incorporated 1897 is the largest association of Physicians and Medical students in the United States i-ix, 331 pp. , 10 pls.
- Kober, G. M. (Editor), Address Delivered at the Complimentary Banquet to Gen. George M. Sternberg — on his Seventieth Birthday (1908)
- Abbott, A. C. in Tr. Coll. Physicians Philadelphia (1918)
- Kelly and Burrage, American Medical Biographies (1920)
- Pilcher, J. E. , Surgeon Generals of the Army (1905)
- Obituary in Evening Star (Washington, D. The Washington Star, previously known as the Washington Star-News and the Washington Evening Star, was C. ), Nov. 3, 1915.
- Phalen, Col. James M. (Compiler), "Chiefs of the Medical Department, U. S. Army 1775-1940, Biographical Sketches," Army Medical Bulletin, No. 52, April 1940, pp. 70-74.
- Craig, S. C. (1998), "Medicine for the Military: George M. Sternberg on the Kansas Plains, 1866-1870", Kansas History 21(3):188-206.
See also
- United States Army Medical Department Museum, Ft Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas
External links
- The Surgeons General of the U.S. Army and Their Predecessors at the Office of Medical History, OTSG Website
- Biography at Virtualology.com
- Dr. George M. Sternberg - Oceans of Kansas
- Xiphactinus audax - Oceans of Kansas
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